Big changes are happening with TEDWomen and Atlanta.
TEDWomen was an international conference held in Atlanta in 2023 at the Woodruff Arts Center, where it had signed a three-year contract.
Now, organizers have changed the name of the conference to TedNext. And they’ve decided to not return to the Woodruff Arts Center, instead moving the event to Pullman Yards for its next conference from Oct. 22-24.
TedWomen was the brainchild of Atlanta’s own Pat Mitchell, who had been attending the national TED conferences held annually in Vancouver. The first TEDWomen was held in 2010, and the three-year move to Atlanta in 2023 was seen as a way to take the gathering to a new level.
“TEDWomen is not going away,” said Monique Ruff-Bell, head of conferences, during a Zoom announcement Friday afternoon. “We were thinking about how TEDWomen shouldn’t be a one-time thing.”
Instead, Ruff-Bell said women have now become a larger part of the regular TED conferences. Plus, the organization did not want to have segmented specialized conferences for various groups, such as LGBTQ.
TEDNext will focus on “the future of you” and be more inclusive.
“There are other communities we want to bring together. You can’t just launch 10 different conferences,” Ruff-Bell said. “The future of you. “The future of you touches all communities.”
During the Zoom call, the question was asked whether the name was being changed because there was pushback against women among corporate backers.
“We did not change TEDWomen because ‘women’ was problematic,” Ruff-Bell said. Women now make up about half of all the speakers at TED conferences. “We know people will be disappointed about the name change.”
Mitchell said hundreds of women have spoken at TEDWomen conferences during its 13-year history – where the event moved from city to city.
“We haven’t declared victory on gender equity, but we have accomplished many of the things we wanted to do – to bring more women onto that platform,” said Mitchell, a proud Atlantan. “Last year in Atlanta was a very special treat to have TEDWomen in my hometown.”
Mitchell added that there will be a “significant TEDWomen” experience during the TEDNext conference.
The other major change for the event is the venue. TEDWomen had signed a three-year agreement with the Woodruff Arts Center. After the 2023 event, Hala Moddelmog, president and CEO of the Center, had been enthusiastic about the gathering, saying TEDWomen should make Atlanta its permanent home.
Moddelmog did not want to comment about the change in venue.
“We absolutely had a multiyear contract with the Woodruff Arts Center,” Ruff-Bell said. “There’s some work going on at the Woodruff Arts Center. It would have involved changing programming around the construction. We had to think about the programming. We were going to be closed off from certain areas.”
Because the goal is to make TEDNext more inclusive, Ruff-Bell said they were hoping to give it more of a festival atmosphere. They also “absolutely wanted to stay in Atlanta” because of its civil and human rights history.
“Pullman Yards checked all the boxes,” Ruff-Bell said.
TEDNext will cost attendees between $2,200 and $2,800 over the three days of the “immersive experience,” she said. That is less than the “big TED” conference, a five-day event that costs between $12,000 and $15,000. It also compares to the cost that TEDWomen was charging in 2023.
